Moses c



(No Model.)

M. O. SWEZEY. STORE SERVICE APPARATUS. No. 409,126. Patented Aug. 13,1889.

N. PETERS, Plumb-Lithographer.WashingwmDIC.

UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

MOSES C. SW'EZEY, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE ACME CASHRAIINVAY CORPORATION, OF SAME PLACE.

STORE-SERVICE APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 409,126, dated August13, 1889.

Application filed March 25, 1889.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MOSES C. SWEZEY, of New Haven, in the county of NewHaven and State of Connecticut, have invented new Improvements inCash-Railway Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following, whentaken in connect-ion with the accompanying drawings and the letters ofreference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exactdescription ofthe same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification,and represent, in-

Figure 1, an illustration of a railway as heretofore constructed, andupon which this improvement is made; Fig.2, a like view of a railway,showing the apparatus with my improvements in the normal condition; Fig.3, the same as Fig. 2, showing the apparatus as having just imparted theimpulse to the car; Fig. 4, a detached top view of the weight; Fig. 5, amodification in the weight; Fig. 6, a side view of a portion of theupright wound with wire.

This invention relates to an improvement in the apparatus which isadapted to be arranged in stores and other places for the convenience oftransferring cash or parcels from one point to another, commonly calledcashrailways, and particularly to that class in which the railway is awire drawn taut, and from which a'car is suspended, the wheels of thecar running above the wire, the body of the car being below, theinvention having special reference to means for giving an impulse to thecar at one point, which will be sufficient to drive the car to itsdestination.

Before proceeding to particularly describe my improvement I will firstdescribe the apparatus to which my invention specially relates.

A represents the wire which forms the track over which the car is torun. B represents a vertical support secured, say, to the ceiling above,and to which one end of the wire is attached, this post representing astation from which the car is to be sent to the cashier. To give theimpulse to the car a cord a is attached to the track, as at b, and runsobliquely upward-say over a pulley d-and thence down, as represented inthe illustration. The support B is tubular, and the cord runs downSerial No. 304,628. (No model.)

through the lower end,boing provided with a suitable handle, as e, forconvenience of taking hold of the cord.

As the car approaches the support B it runs 5 5 onto the oblique cord atand draws it down onto the track, as indicated in broken lines, Fig. 1.This raises the handle e, as also seen in broken lines. Then, when it isdesired to throw the car from this station, a pull is made upon the cordthrough the handle 6, tending to bring the cord into its straight line,as from b to (Z, and this rising of the cord gives an impulse to the carsufficient to throw it to its desired destination, but leaves the handle6 5 in its down position. This is objectionable as being in the way ofthe clerks in the vicinity of the station, the up position being thepointwhere the handle must be when it is required to be used. It will beunderstood that the cord must be kept sufficiently taut for the car torun onto it; hence the handle serves as a weight to draw it up into thestraight oblique position shown.

The object of my invention is to combine with this apparatus a devicewhich will not only hold the cord in its proper relation to the track,but will also automatically raise the handle to its up position, and sothat the handle will always stand in the proper position for pullwhether or not the car be at that station; and the invention also hasfor its object to give an inclination to the track between two stationsto insure the car running to its destination after it shall havereceived its impulse.

To this end the invention consists in the combination of mechanism, ashereinafter described, and particularly recited in the claims.

As in the first illustration, A represents the wire track, and B thesupport for the wire at the station, the support represented as securedupon the ceiling. This support is tubular and is made firm, so as tohold the track at the required tension. 5

a represents the cord for imparting the impulse to the car, and Z) thepoint of attachment, as in the first illustration; but, instead ofrunning the cord (1 directly to a stationary pulleyd and thence down andhaving the han- 10o dle attached to the other end, the other end of thecord is made fast, say, to the track. and near the support, as at f, andit runs over a pulley g, which is attached to one end of a cord h, thatruns over the pulley g and thence down, the handle 6 being applied tothe other end of the cord 71. The cord 72, running over the pulley g,forms a loop '11 in the cord (1, and upon this loop a weight is applied,which, as here represented, consists of a frame I, carrying two pulleysm in, (see Fig. 4,) so that the said weight hangs upon the loop, tendingto hold the two sides of the loop nearly parallel with each other whenin the normal position, as seen in Fig. 2, and so that the cord a runssubstantially parallel with the track A until the weight is reached,where it turns up through the weight over the pulley g and thence down,running through the weight to the fixed point f.

Now, it is evident that if the cord h be pulled down, as indicated inFig. 3, the pulley Q will rise, and in so doing will tend to spread theloop i, which will cause the weight to rise, as seen in Fig. 3, untilthe desired inclination of the cord to is attained, the up positionbeing represented in Fig. Thus raising the cord a will impart theimpulse to the car, as in the first illustration; but after the impulsehas been given, and as soon as the handle 6 is released, the weight willfall, running down upon the cord a and again forming the loop '11, as inFig. 2. This will be sufiicient to raise the handle to the up positionand leave the cord in its proper position to receive the car. Owing tothis operation of the weight upon the cord the normal position of thehandle is at its highest point instead of at its lowest point, as in thefirst illustration. y

In Fig. 2, 0 represents the car as advancing toward the station, and inFig. 3 the same car is represented as just leaving the station under theimpulse given to it through the cord a.

I have described the appliances a and 7). as cords; but it will beunderstood that chains, flexible wires, or other suitable material maybe substituted therefor, and that by the term cord such equivalents areto be understood as included.

lVhile I prefer to make the weight which embraces the two runs of thecord below the pulleyg in the form of a frame, with two pulleys adaptedto work upon the two runs of the cord, a weight I, in the form of alink, as in Fig. 5, may be employed, it simply sliding up and down uponthe two runs of the cord.

The pulleys g and (Z are to be understood as devices of any suitablecharacter over which the cords may run freely.

To give to the track an inclination which, after the car has beenstarted under the initial impulse, will insure the running of the car tothe end of its route,I make the connection between the track A and theupright movable on the upright, and this connection is best made in theform of a carriage D, arranged to run on the surface of the upright onthe side opposite the track, with connections E from the track aroundthe upright to the carriage, and so that the strain of the track comesdirectly upon this carriage, the carriage being provided with wheels, sothat it may run vertically on the upright and carry that end of thetrack with it up or down, as the case maybe. I then connect the trackwith the cord 71. by another cord F, which is of a length so that thepull of the cord h will not come to a pull upon the track until theimpulse is completed, or during the last part of the impulse. As hererepresented, the connection is such that the cord becomes taut just asthe impulse is completed. Now, a further pull upon the cord 71. willretain its strain upon the cord (1, and at the same time will draw thatend of the track upward to the position indicated in broken lines, Fig.3, and thereby give to the track an inclination in the direction inwhich the car is running, and so that the car starting under the impulsewill move rapidly over the track with the certainty of reaching itsdestination should the impulse not have been quite sufficient to driveit to that destination had the track been level. \Vhen the cord isreleased, the weight l comes down, as before, drawing with it the cord71, which slackens the strain upon the track, leaving the track free todescend by its own gravity, the carriage being weighted sufiiciently toinsure the return of the track to its down position.

The connection between the track and the cord h may be made directly, asI have described, oi' indirectly say as to the weight as indicated inbroken lines, Fig. 2.

A suitable stop, as G, should be provided on the upright to arrest thedescent of the carriage, so that the track will be supported in itsproper position.

It will be understood that the track is provided with a like arrangementat both ends, so that the movement of the carriage will be facilitatedby the inclination in both going and coming. This inclination of thetrack is specially desirable where the apparatus is used fortransferring packages.

The weightl is not essential to the combined impulse-giving andtrack-raising device, although I prefer to employ the weight, asdescribed.

It is desirable to provide means for retaining the carriage D in itselevated position without being necessarily held there by the operator.The upright B is usually made from metal tubing. I wind upon the surfaceof the upright wire, as indicated in Fig. 6, I representing the wire,also seen in Figs. 2 and 3, which produces a roughened surface, overwhich the wheels of the carriage will run, and the wire, making anuneven surface, will serve to hold the carriage at any position to whichit may be raised untilit is returned by a pull thereonsay by means of acord 11, which extends into convenient reach for the operator.

I claim- 1. In a cash-railway apparatus which consists of a trackcomposed of a wire, with a car suspended from wheels upon the track, thecombination therewith of a cord at, attached by one end to the track ata point distant from the station and upon which the wheels of the carmay run as it approaches the station, the other end of the said cordattached at the station, the said cordbeing of greater length than thedistance between its two points of attachment, a suspended pulley g,over which the said cord 0, runs between its two points of attachment, acord h, running from said suspended pulley over a pulley above andthence down to convenient reach for the hand, and a weight applied tothe cord at between the said pulley g and the points where the cord atis attached, said weight adapted to embrace the two runs of the cord abelow the said pulley g, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. In a cash-railway apparatus, the combination of the wire track A, theupright B, from which the track extends, a carriage D, arranged to runvertically on said upright, that end of the track being secured to saidcarriage, a cord at, attached by one end to the track at the upright andby the other end at a point b distant from said upright, a cord h,running over a pulley above, one end eX- tending downward and carrying apulley over which the said cord 60 passes the other end of the cordextending down and provided with convenient means for pulling upon saidcord, the said cord h having an extension F in connection with saidtrack at the upright, substantially as and for the purpose described.

MOSES C. SWEZEY.

Vi tn esses:

FRED (J. EARLE, 'LILLIAN D. KELsEY.

